I had the extreme good fortune this morning of joining the Milwaukee Birders for their visit to the Cedarburg Bog, “one of the largest and most diverse wetlands in southern Wisconsin“, which I was stunned to learn is actually in Saukville, not Cedarburg, and is technically a fen, not a bog. Happily, the critters don’t seem to mind these mislabelings.
The first such critter, who seemed perfectly content there, was this ruby-throated hummingbird keeping her eggs warm on a branch just off the trail. Long-time readers may recall that we had a similar nest in Estabrook just last year, but this is the first hummingbird I’ve seen all summer, so I’m especially thrilled to see one again.
This next critter is a surprise even to the fine folks at ebird. It’s a brown creeper, in case you can’t tell from my artfully dark and grainy “photograph”, bringing food to its nest under that loose bark to which it is clinging, and it is considered “rare” for this location on this date. How fun!
As I understand it, a visit to Cedarburg Bog isn’t complete without seeing a carnivorous plant, and here’s a healthy-looking specimen of the Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea).
As luck would have it, they are currently in blossom, and here’s one of the intricate beauties, which have evolved to be “pollinated by bumble bees, honey bees, and Pitcher plant flies.”
As amazing as the pitcher plant is, it isn’t even the only carnivorous plant there, and here’s a Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) that is not nearly as in focus as I thought it was. Oops!
There is also a carnivorous bladderwort growing in the water there, but I couldn’t make a picture of that look pretty, so here’s a striking carnivorous insect, instead, a female twelve-spotted dragonfly, and our first such of the year.
Finally, the weather was very pleasant this morning, so there were several butterflies flitting about, and here’s the one that let me capture the nicest image, our first red-spotted purple of the year.
Lastly, back at Estabrook Park, the weather is forecast to be a little cooler, a little breezier, and a lot cloudier tomorrow morning than we’ve been enjoying lately, but after seeing our first dunlins and our first semipalmated plover just this past week, I hope you’re as excited for our weekly wildlife walk as I am. We also took advantage of the low water and hauled that nasty broken canoe, a shopping cart, one more tire, and a bunch of other junk, which recent floods have left for us, out of the river between the islands yesterday so the viewing should be better than ever. I’ll look for you at the beer garden parking lot at 7am and again at 8am.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 